Some bloggers from the Competitive Enterprise Institute were at the Society of Environmental Journalists conference in Vermont last week, and they took a look at some of the booth displays:Next up are the companies represented by the Nuclear Energy Institute, which have been hoping for a while that global warming would be their savior. After all, atomic energy doesn’t generate greenhouse gases. As NEI’s own material puts it, “We need more electricity and we want clean air. With nuclear energy, we can have both.” Unfortunately, many of the same people doing climate change advocacy work today are the same ones who staffed the anti-nuclear movement of the 1970s and 80s. Global warming may be “the greatest threat facing mankind,” but that doesn’t mean the environmental movement is going to embrace nuclear. It’s just not a position an ideological fashionable person takes.

NEI’s table giveaways are among the best. You’ve got a “Nuclear: The clean air technology” luggage tag, a small coaster/…

We've gotten word that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will announce the issuance of a license renewal for two nuclear reactors sometime today. Stand by for more.

UPDATE: The lucky plant is Nine Mile Point, near Oswego, N.Y. The NRC has approved the renewal of operating licenses at Constellation's two reactors here for an additional 20 years. That means Nine Mile Point 1 will operate until 2029, and Nine Mile Point 2 until 2046. Constellation submitted its application in May 2004.

With renewal of the Nine Mile Point reactors, the total number of reactors with renewed licenses is now 46. For more details, click here.

The NRC release is not available on its Web site yet. When it is available, you can find it here. And of course, we'll update this post to link to the release itself as soon as we can. In the meantime, Constellation has issued a release as well.

The October issue of Energy Information Digest (PDF) is now available on the NEI Web site, in the Newsroom. In it, you'll find articles about the Department of Energy's plans to address climate change and energy challenges, California's new law to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Illinois' new global warming initiative, new nuclear plant activity in Texas, deep-sea wind turbines, rebuilding New Orleans with sustainable development, Yucca Mountain legislation, and other topics.

In an column positing that environmentalism can become the new glue to cement the traditional alliance between Europe and America, Tom Friedman interviewed Jürgen Hogrefe, a former German Green Party spokesman and currently an executive with electric utility, EnBW:“The Green Party has been extremely important for German society,” he said, helping to transform the post-Nazi society into a more liberal domain. But an antinuclear stance has been at the core of the party, and now that the German mainstream has embraced a green agenda, the Greens need to rethink nuclear energy. “The Green Party should redefine itself,” added Mr. Hogrefe. “In some fields they are very modern party. ... But concerning nuclear energy and ecology they are stubborn, not open enough to see what is happening around the globe.”Maybe Mr. Hogrefe can compare notes with Patrick Moore someday.

That’s why we should applaud Klaus for breaching this topic and shooting at the “consensus” made up by the half-educated chattering classes. This iconoclastic position suits him much better than interfering into executive politics. Klaus has no right to decide how big a majority a prime minister must have in Parliament; he lost his instinct for politics about 10 years ago. But he’s a good provocateur; and no sacred cow of our public debate needs to be slaughtered more urgently than the nuclear taboo.Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Power, Energy, Electri…

Nashville in the 21st Century is reprinting excerpts from Rep. Harold Ford's (D-TN) book, Tomorrow's Patriots. The following passage comes from Chapter 3, which deals with energy policy:Finally, it is past time for us to recognize our need to develop safe and effective use of nuclear energy. France relies on nuclear power for 78 percent of its electricity. Sweden and Korea each use nuclear energy to generate over 40 percent of their electricity. Yet here in America, we have not built a nuclear generator in over 30 years. This must change. Scientists at Oak Ridge have joined researchers across the globe as part of the ITER Project to develop the next generation of nuclear power Â clean, safe and emission-free fusion power. While this kind of energy is still decades away from commercial availability, it will be a big part of our future.This seems to be happening more frequently. Credit Instapundit with the link.

Hello from Burlington! I'm at the Society of Environmental Journalists Conference with Melanie Lyons, NEI media relations manager. This morning Patrick Moore spoke on a panel called "Cradle to Grave: New Nukes and Old Radioactive Waste," which focused largely on the safety and economic issues surrounding nuclear power. Patrick was outnumbered on this panel 2-1, as he was joined by Jim Riccio of Greenpeace and former NRC Commissioner Peter Bradford, now of the Union of Concerned Scientists and an adviser to the Grace Energy Initiative. But Patrick held his own and shared a lot of facts about nuclear energy. I'll walk you through the proceedings in case you missed the webcast by Grace Energy Initiative.

Jim Riccio spoke first and painted nuclear power plants as prime targets for terrorism. From where I was sitting, it looked like he was doing a bit of fearmongering, basically saying it's only a matter of time before a plant is hit. Patrick Moore refuted this a bit l…

Later today, Dr. Patrick Moore of the CASEnergy Coalition will take part in a panel discussion sponsored by the Society of Environmental Journalists at their annual conference. The title is, "Is Nuclear Power the Solution to Climate Change," and he'll be joined on the panel by Peter Bradford, former Vice Chair of the NRC and now with the Union of Concerned Scientists as well as Jim Riccio, nuclear policy analyst for Greenpeace.

Two anti-nukes and Patrick Moore, I guess that's what SEJ thinks of as "fair and balanced".

He called for consideration of making most or all of our electricity from nuclear power. The problem is that today, more nuclear power plants will NOT reduce importation of petroleum. We've already displaced oil as a fuel for electricity with our first big nuclear build back in the 70s and early 80s. In 1970, almost 35% of US electricity was fueled by oil. Today, it's down to 3%.

The real problem lies with the prospective fuel for generators -- imported liquefied natural gas. As domestic demand increases and North American supplies decline, energy planners and marketers are looking more and more to new LNG terminals to provide the gas to run combined cycle combustion gas turbine plants. Are we adding a NEW addiction to our old bad habit? Nuclear power could and should prevent that.

Thanks to my NEI colleague Donn Salvosa passing along the following exchange between Larry Kudlow and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi than ran this morning on CNBC (no link available):KUDLOW: All right. We're here, back with more of my interview with House leader Nancy Pelosi. We'll get her thoughts on the U.S. policy in Iraq and on energy. I began by asking whether she would support an offshore drilling bill.

Rep. PELOSI: Depends. The Senate bill that is out there now is a much better bill than the House bill because it's targeted in what it would use the money for. I think we have to have some sunset to say, `How many years can we have tens of billions of dollars siphoned off from the federal government to a state?' Which is part of that bill? But there's really a need for remediation in terms of wetlands in New Orleans and the rest. So some kind of a bill like that might gain support just so long as it wasn't used as a model to do offshore drilling all o…

From Mining Weekly (South Africa):“The PBMR is one of three reactor designs that we want to offer to clients as our developmental reactors,” explains Westinghouse senior vice- president and chief technology officer Dr Regis Matzie. The other two are both Westinghouse designs – the AP1000 and Iris.

“The AP1000 is our flagship – its development has been finished; it has been licensed by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and it’s ready to launch,” he states.

The AP1000 is an advanced pressurised water reactor, and would be able to produce 1 117 MWe to 1 154 MWe.

For comparison, a single PBMR module would be a 165-MWe unit, although for power generation applications the PBMR would most often be constructed in four-, six-, or more module plants; a typical ‘four-pack’ modular unit would be able to deliver 660 MWe.

“We are currently bidding the AP1000 in China,” he reports.

“After the AP1000, chronologically speaking, will be the PBMR – we believe that the PBMR will be commercially ready by t…

Here's Katherine Booth from the Yale Daily News:Environmentalism is a great idea, up to a point. Let's run our buses on used cooking oil and recycle our red plastic cups, but let's also look to nuclear energy and expanded oil drilling in the United States to take care of our short-term energy crisis. Renewable energy may feel good initially, but a million wind turbines in Yellowstone or Yosemite would be ugly, expensive and incredibly inefficient. Look up the statistics - wind turbines and solar panels don't produce nearly the power you thought. And if you don't want wind turbines in Yosemite or the Branford courtyard, do you want them covering the state of Oklahoma? The self-righteousness of the environmentalist movement tries to make the conflict black and white, to sharply delineate between those who support the environment and those who gleefully turn it into a stinking cesspool. But even those who claim to be "environmentalists" are willing to take t…

Well, not exactly, but that's the import of the international anti-nuke crusaders plea to the Romanian government not to build new nuclear power plants:Bucking a trend in Europe, Romania plans to inaugurate its second reactor early in 2007 and has set a deadline for binding bids to build and operate a third and a fourth reactor for end-2006. "A major nuclear accident due to technical causes or following a terror attack will be devastating ... such as an accident at the Belene and Kozloduy plants in Bulgaria," Anamaria Bogdan, a spokeswsoman for Greenpeace in Romania, said in a statement.

"Nuclear energy is one of the worst options to solve Romania's energy (needs)," Jan Haverkamp, an expert with Greenpeace was also quoted as saying.Sounds like Romania's leaders are on the same page as Czech President Vaclav Klaus.

My boss, Walter Hill, just returned to the U.S. after helping to run a communications seninar sponsored by the IAEA, and he made a point of men…

The new site unites the two formerly separate IAEA websites for INIS(www.iaea.org/inis) and nuclear knowledge management (www.iaea.org/km) and informs you about activities, products and services of the Section, i.e. nuclear information in INIS and nuclear knowledge management.

I would like to invite you to take a few minutes to explore the new site. I would also be pleased if you could add a link to our new site on the webpages of your organization. Please do not forget to also update your bookmarks and links to the new site, since the old sites will not be updated any longer and will be disconnected from the net in due course.Update your links/bookmarks accordingly.

At 1 p.m. this afternoon, Grace Energy Initiative released a document titled “False Promises: Debunking Nuclear Industry Propaganda,” in which the group addresses 10 nuclear industry claims and why they are misleading.

I’ve read so many of these types of reports that each time I read a new one, for fun, I test myself to see who the source is for each claim.

On our blog, we’re about to the point where the issues have been addressed and refuted on almost all aspects of nuclear power. So why bother addressing this most recent report? Because it goes beyond the typical anti-nuclear claims and on to dirty tactics involving the Society of Environmental Journalists’ 16th Annual Conference beginning tomorrow, which Eric will get more into in more detail in a later post.

Let’s begin. The report says on page 10 that “nuclear power is the slowest and costliest way to reduce CO2 emissions when compared to efficiency, distributed generation and some renewable sources.” yet whenever I hear this claim,…

Visit Seeing the Forest for the Trees:I believe the problem of where to put nuclear waste pales in comparison to what we face - and what we are doing now is just dumping the waste (CO2) from burning fossil fuel into the air.Click here for the interview with James Lovelock that inspired him to write his pro-nuclear post.

There was an NRC public meeting last week in Waynesboro, Georgia to gather comments regarding Southern Nuclear’s proposed expansion of Plant Vogtle. Articles in the Savannah Morning News and the Augusta Chronicle (registration required but it’s free) had different reports for the number of attendees, but both noted that nuclear supporters greatly outnumbered antinuclear activists. The Savannah article said: The majority of Burke County residents spoke in favor of expansion, including resolutions of support for the Waynesboro City Council and the Burke County Commission.Mal McKibben of Citizens for Nuclear Technology Awareness said This is important…because a key factor in the NRC's decision-making is how much support local leaders give to nuclear projects. If pro-nuclear folks don't show up, the field is left to well-organized and highly vocal anti-nuclear groups that come from all over the Southeast.Local NA-YGN members were also at the meeting and report that the speakers we…

Here's a summary of what went on in the energy markets last week:Electricity prices mostly increased throughout the country again last week (see pages 1 & 2). Gas prices rose at the Henry Hub increasing $.79 to $5.69 / MMBtu (see page 4).Nuclear capacity availability was at 74% last week. Twenty four reactors were down for refueling and six were offline for maintenance (see pages 2&3). Palo Verde 3 tripped after a device that measures the position of fuel rods in the reactor core failed to show the location of a control rod. River Bend was down briefly after isolation valves on two feedwater switches inadvertently closed, causing a reactor trip.For the report click here (pdf). It is also located on NEI's Nuclear Statistics webpage.

From Business Week:The EU on Tuesday approved French plans to build a new atomic power reactor expected to be a model for the next generation of more fuel-efficient nuclear energy stations.

Under EU nuclear rules, the European Commission must clear investments for building or renovating nuclear power plants.

Electricite de France SA says the new station -- to be built at Flamanville (current plant pictured at left), northern France -- will be able to generate 1,600 megawatts of energy using European pressurized-water reactor, or EPR, technology that aims to use 17 percent less fuel.Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Power, Energy, Environment, Electricity, France, Politics, EU

From Reuters:Leading electricity companies from around the world on Tuesday issued a report urging governments to adopt new sustainable energy and climate policies to avoid a future environmental crisis.

The report, released by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and eight power companies, contained an agenda to secure future electric generation, bring power to more people around the world and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The companies included ABB Ltd. of Switzerland, EDF Group and Suez of France, Eskom Holding Ltd. of South Africa, CLP Holdings Ltd. of Hong Kong, Entergy Corp. of the United States and Kansai Electric Power Co Inc. and Tokyo Electric Power Co Inc. of Japan.

In the "Powering a Sustainable Future" report, the companies urged governments to start favoring low carbon sources of electricity like nuclear, solar and wind power, to boost energy conservation programs and to invest more in energy technologies.

Reacting to last week's NERC report on grid reliability in North America, the Mobile Press Register had this to say:Among the energy mix, the United States must revitalize its dormant commitment to nuclear energy and expand development of alternative energy sources and conservation programs. Meeting the nation's future energy needs will require greater investment of resources and creative solutions.

Power companies will have to "think outside the box" to keep the nation energized.Alabama is in the unique position to revitalize plans to build three nuclear power units near Scottsboro. State and federal regulators should do all they can to encourage the Tennessee Valley Authority to proceed with the units.Technorati tags: Nuclear Power, Nuclear Energy, Electricity, Energy, Politics, NERC, Grid Reliability

Our friend Alan Smith from Entergy sends along the following news from Mississippi:Volunteers from the Mississippi Section of the American Nuclear Society and U.S. Women in Nuclear presented information about nuclear science and technology to educators at the Mississippi Science Teachers Association's 2006 Convention (Pictured here are Undree Wells and Scott Stanchfield of ANS). Over 450 science teachers attended the October 23-24th event in Jackson, Mississippi. In a break-out session, a presentation entitled "Nuclear Science and Technology -- In the Classroom Around the World" was made to inform teachers about available classroom resources as well as careers in the nuclear industry. Hands-on demonstrations were used to provide examples of classroom activities available to educators.

Released by NRC very late last Friday afternoon:Commissioner Jeffrey S. Merrifield, one of five members of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, notified White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten on Friday that he would not be seeking a third term at the NRC. Commissioner Merrifield, a Republican, was first appointed by President Clinton to the NRC in October of 1998, and subsequently reappointed by President Bush in August of 2002.

Merrifield, whose term ends on June 30, 2007, informed Bolten that it was his intention to serve out the remainder of his term, but was notifying the President well in advance of his plans to leave the Commission to allow the Administration to have sufficient time to find a suitable replacement.

“It has been an honor to serve the nation as a Commissioner,” Merrifield commented. “NRC is an outstanding agency and I am proud to have served for over 8 years.” He also stated that it was a very difficult decision not to seek a third term but believes tha…

German Prime Minister Angela Merkel is taking the gloves off when it comes to the phase-out of nuclear energy in her country:In a speech to a party rally in Wiesbaden, Merkel went further than before to criticise her junior coalition partners, the Social Democrats, for their refusal to reconsider laws requiring German producers to shut down nuclear plants by 2020.

"I consider it to be wrong that we're turning off our nuclear plants only because that is what was agreed," Merkel said. "The bad news is, however, the Social Democrats consider that to be important," she added.

Merkel said the conservatives could still push for a review of the phase-out.

"No one can prevent us from discussing the topic of energy anymore. We're facing challenges and need to develop strategies to ensure our energy supplies over the years ahead," she said.

Nuclear power currently supplies a third of German electricity. Opinion polls regularly show the vast majority of the publ…

One ancillary benefit of the bull market in uranium: New jobs. Here's Strathmore Minerals President David Miller from a Q&A he did with StockInterview.com:When annual uranium production reaches 20 million pounds U308 in the United States, the industry would create about 4,000 direct jobs in the mining industry and nearly 30,000 in support services.Beats importing even more natural gas, don't you think?

The new reactors make that scenario obsolete with a solution that’s “as dumb as a brick” - hire a bunch of boilermakers to lay down a brick patio under the reactor vessel. Of course, one has to use high temperature alumina brick and lay it about 1.5 meters (~5 feet) thick and wide enough to act as a “cookie sheet.” There will be minor specification changes necessary but nothing that the refractory industry can’t handle easily. Alumina brick is already used for lining glass furnances and slag pits.

Yet, I’ve have NEVER heard or read of the nuclear industry mentioning this in public. We engineers know about it but the ramifications of this feature on the public debate haven’t yet been communicated to the world. In my marketing classes at B-school…

From today's Dallas Morning News: Larry Makovich, managing director for consulting group Cambridge Energy Research Associates, said the urgency to bring more power-generating plants online cannot be understated.

"A fundamental reality of the power business is there is no single fuel of choice, so if you are going to survive in the long run, you need to have a good mix of fuels and technologies," he said. "If we are going to keep supply and demand in balance, you're looking at a five-year lead time, so you have to get started building these plants now."More support for the NERC report.

We knew it was only a matter of time before the anti-nukes started some high-profile organizing to fight the resurgence in nuclear energy. The result: "Beyond Nuclear" a Web site/fundraising tool that debuted on the Web today courtesy of our friends at NIRS.

They've got a rather impressive array of actors and other artists serving as the backbone of the campaign, including Ed Asner, Ed Begly, Jr. and James Cromwell.

There isn't much there right now, but I'm relishing the opportunity to have the nuclear professionals here at NEI Nuclear Notes go head to head with a bunch of actors.

Responding to a recent column by Tom Friedman in the New York Times regarding the political opportunity that lies in promoting energy independence, our friend Geoffrey Styles had this to say:The political opportunity may be great, but it's going to require some icon-breaking for both sides, if we want real progress, rather than well-intended but impractical remedies. I plan to suggest some concrete examples during the next couple of weeks, but topping the list is the need to mesh our energy and environmental priorities in a way that treats all primary energy sources --i.e. those that create net new BTUs, rather than changing them from one from to another -- equally, and differentiates between them based on their total environmental impact, with greenhouse gas emissions as first priority. That means coming up with a systematic way to evaluate the life-cycle environmental consequences of a wide range of energy sources, including ethanol and other biofuels, clean coal, nuclear, oil…

Czech Republic President Vaclav Klaus tried to send a message about energy independence to the rest of Europe during a press conference earlier today:Speaking before an informal EU summit that will discuss EU energy dependence, Klaus voiced doubts about the EU being able to find a joint position on the issue towards Russia.

According to Klaus, the European energy strategy should not be dependent on the talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin with whom participants in the summit will meet today.

It is necessary to start with the energy industry in Europe and "certain taboos that have been forced on Europe in the past years according the operation of thermo- or coal-fuelled plants or nuclear energy should be abandoned," Klaus said.

"If we ban this in Europe there is and there will be dependence from Russia and we cannot achieve anything," Klaus added.Glad to see more people are paying attention to the problems endemic in overeliance on Russian natural gas supplies.

I’m sure by now many readers are getting tired of reading about Dr. Caldicott and her latest book “Nuclear Power is Not the Answer.” So if the readers can hang with me for one last post on the book I would really appreciate it.

Chapter 9 – Renewable Energy: The Answer

Caldicott, p. 161:Many kinds of alternative solutions are currently on the drawing board because of the extreme urgency of countering global warming. For instance, the conversion of coal to a synthetic fuel, which can be used for transportation and which would contribute much less to global warming than petroleum, is actively being championed by Governor Brian Schweitzer of Montana.I don’t know about you but I’m a bit stunned to see that she would mention coal as a solution to climate change.

Caldicott, p. 161:However, the world at large has already begun to shift over to alternative energy sources, as is documented in several recent studies…Globally, more electricity is now produced by decentralized, low-carbon or no-carbo…

Here's a summary of what went on in the energy markets last week:Electricity prices mostly increased throughout the country last week (see pages 1 & 2). Gas prices rose at the Henry Hub increasing $.79 to $4.90 /MMBtu (see page 4).Nuclear capacity availability was at 78% last week. Twenty reactors were down for refueling and four were offline for maintenance (see pages 2&3).The North American Electric Reliability Council released its 2006 Long-Term Reliability Assessment which can be found here: http://www.nerc.com/~filez/rasreports.html. According to the summary, “electric utilities forecast demand to increase over the next ten years by 19 percent (141,000 MW) in the United States and 13 percent (9,500 MW) in Canada, but project committed resources to increase by only 6 percent (57,000 MW) in the U.S. and by 9 percent (9,000 MW) in Canada.”For the podcast click here. For the report click here (pdf). It is also located on NEI's Nuclear Statistics webpage.